Electoral College

Electoral CollegeThe founding fathers established the Electoral College in the Constitution as a compromise between election of the President by a vote in Congress and election of the President by a popular vote of qualified citizens. The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Each state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for Senators.

There have been many proposed reforms to the Electoral College System since it was put in place, most of them trying to eliminate it. One of the arguments to keep the current Electoral College System in place is because it contributes to the cohesiveness of the country by requiring a distribution of popular support to be elected President. If this was not in place a President could potentially be elected through the domination of one popular region over the others or through the domination of large metropolitan areas over the rural ones. The Electoral College System also enhances the status of minority interests, which means the voters of even small minorities in a State can win none of that State’s Electoral votes, or all of them. If Presidents were to be elected by the popular vote this would damage minorities because their vote would be overwhelmed by the national majority vote. The Electoral College also promotes a two-party system, rather than a third party system. A two-party system is encouraged because the majority of people want the minority candidate to adopt one of the two-party views versus their own more radical views that put them in the third party system in the first place. (US Election Atlas)

For the above reasons I believe this is enough to keep the current system in place. While there have been many proposals to abolish this system, none have come up with a better system. Most proposals seem to potentially be...

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...Abolish the ElectoralCollege
Abstract
The power to vote is an important right for the people because it shows fairness and equality. The United States does not provide us with a direct election for President and Vice President, but they utilize the ElectoralCollege to represent voters’ choice. Article 2, Section1 of the Constitution says specifically how the President of the United States should be elected. There have been four times in history that the ElectoralCollege has gone against the nation’s popular vote. The ElectoralCollege gives disportionate voting powers to the states. There are organization all around the United States that are trying to form a new method of electing the president, as well as organizations that still support the College. Every individual vote should count. We should establish a 28th amendment to eliminate the ElectoralCollege.
Policy Identification
In the 12th Amendment of the Constitution it states that Electors are to meet in their respective state, and vote for the Vice President and President of the United States. Article two, section 1 of the Constitution gives the states power on how all their votes shall be distributed (Longly, 2010). The ElectoralCollege consists of 538 members. The ElectoralCollege...

...Should America Reject the ElectoralCollege and Go to a Popular Vote?
The American way of electing the highest office in our country is hard to explain on a good day to a fellow American, let alone to a non-American. The question that often follows an explanation of the ElectoralCollege is something like: why doesn’t the United States just adopt a popular vote? Through the course of this paper I will talk about first the history of the ElectoralCollege. Secondly, I will discuss the negatives of the ElectoralCollege. Finally I will look at the possible advantages of switching to a popular vote.
Let’s take a half step into the past and learn how we got the ElectoralCollege in the first place. 1787 was the year of the constitutional convention. I won’t walk through history too much here other than to say that the men who gathered were representing both large and small states and not looking to diminish their individual state powers. These men were also a little hit-shy from the fight for independence. Monarchs were bad, so giving too much power to anyone or any one state seemed like a bad idea. The country looked much different then. We had fewer American citizens at the time than currently live in New York City. Elections, well government as a whole, were for the wealthy land owning white men of the country.
The framers needed...

...﻿Sam Thompson
1/12/14
‘The electoralcollege should be replaced by a national popular vote.’ Discuss. (45 marks)
The ElectoralCollege is a political institution that every 4 years is indirectly given the task of electing the president and vice-president of the United States of America into power. The idea behind the ElectoralCollege is that it would give power to people that know politics so that they can make an informed decision on who should be president. This institution is a staple of the US constitution, and is something the Framers wrote about in great detail. However, in recent times this system has come under scrutiny and there are now many arguments that suggest the ElectoralCollege (EC) should be scrapped and replaced by a national popular vote.
One of the biggest problems with the ElectoralCollege is that under the system you don’t need a majority of the national popular vote to win the election; in fact there have been cases, such as the 2000 election where the winner of the election did not even win the popular vote. In the 2000 election, George W. Bush faced off against Al Gore- the incumbent Vice-President. Throughout the election campaign the polls were coming up close- and the result was that indeed. Gore got 48.4% of the popular vote (50,999,897), whereas Bush lost on the popular vote as he only received 47.9%...

...The ElectoralCollege: A Trouble Prone and Undemocratic System
The ElectoralCollege is an institution that may have served a purpose 200 years ago when the founding fathers needed a system that would be met with approval by both large and small states. The ElectoralCollege is a flawed method of electing our President that has created problems in previous elections and is likely to be the source of problems in the future. The ElectoralCollege provides an undemocratic method of choosing our president that potentially undermines the will of the voters. Not only can a candidate be elected without actually winning the most votes, it puts our elections at the mercy of electors who don't always cast their vote as pledged. I intend to demonstrate that the problems inherent in this voting method far outweigh any benefits it may provide. Replacing the winner-take-all method of awarding electoral votes with a system such as proportional representation or eliminating the college altogether in favor of direct election is the best way to ensure a trouble-free and fair election process.
History
The ElectoralCollege was devised in the 1787 Philadelphia Convention as a compromise between large and small states. It was intended to ensure smaller states were not overshadowed by more populated states in the election...

...(Wright 56).
Alexander Hamilton was the chief architect of the electoralcollege since he distrusted popular democracy. He said that the electoralcollege would ensure that a few men of insight and reflection would select the ablest president. Specifically, he wrote, "A small number of persons, selected by their fellow-citizens from the general mass would act under circumstances favorable to deliberation" (Wright 59). Hamilton believed that the electoralcollege system would reduce civic unrest if public participation were directed to certify the results of a presidential election. He noted that the electoralcollege concept was less susceptible to political manipulation.
However, the United States has moved away from the original republicanism rationale experienced by the Founding Fathers. Opponents of the electoralcollege, such as author Lawrence Longley state, "Today's advancement in communications, computers, and polling computations has permitted our society to accept results the popular vote with confidence" (18). However, the question remains, has the electoralcollege outlived it original intent and purpose? I believe that we need the electoralcollege to alleviate future problems that are associated with direct vote presidential elections. Moreover, we have...

...Alexander Hamilton’s ElectoralCollege and the Modern Election
Alexander Hamilton’s ElectoralCollege and the Modern Election
Colin Campbell
Prof. R Hurl
TA: Matthew Lesch
Tutorial: Thursday, 4:00 PM, UC 67)
U. S. Government and Politics (POL 208 Y1Y)
1 November 2012
Alexander Hamilton’s ElectoralCollege and the Modern Election
When American's leaders assembled in Philadelphia in 1787, they originally had the goal of solving issues that had arisen from the Articles of Confederation, which had governed the young nation since separating from Britain. Instead, they drafted a completely new document that established a more permanent and effective central government. With it, they established the office of President of the United States. Rather than being directly elected by the people or selected by the legislature – as described by Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers – the head of state was to be elected by an independent institution that existed solely for the purpose of finding a man who was up to the job: a group that would become known as the ElectoralCollege. However, as the political nature of the country evolved in an unanticipated and partisan way, the independence of this body became increasingly irrelevant, resulting in a system which fails to meet the standards of a true modern democracy. Although the Electoral...

...Analyze criticism of the "ElectoralCollege" system and the alleged advantages and disadvantages of various reform proposals.
The ElectoralCollege is a system in which the individual voter does not actually vote directly for the president. When a person votes they are voting for an elector that has pledged their vote or allegiance to the running party. The Framers realized that without widespread communications available at the time and with other varying factors an "each vote counts" or "the popular vote" system would not be practical. Because of this they formed the ElectoralCollege system, Under Article II of the US Constitution, although this system was never called this in the Article. This system has survived for over 200 years, with only two changes to it. These would be Amendment 12, and 23 of US Constitution. Many people have throughout the years said that the ElectoralCollege is antiquated and needs to be changed, where as many others defended the ElectoralCollege system.
Some people believe the ElectoralCollege system have many flaws, these can include electing a minority president, faithless Electors, the ElectoralCollege causing a decline in voter turnout, the inequality of votes from large to small states, and the disadvantages for third parties.
One...

...﻿Johnny Iacobucci
ElectoralCollege Essay
Civics
The electoralcollege is the current system of voting used in the United States of America to elect the president. A body of electors chosen by the voters in each state to elect the President and vice President of the U.S. However, this system has its flaws. In 2000 the Bush vs Gore election truly showed the nation why the electoralcollege should be abolished and revised.
The electoralcollege is organized by state. Each state gets a certain number of electors, the people who vote in the electoralcollege. A state’s number of electors equals its number of senators and representatives combined. Every state has two senators. “The number of representatives is based on the population of the state, though every state has at least one representative. In addition, the District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.) gets three electors.” (Britannica). The United States has two main political groups, or parties (the Democrats and the Republicans). Each political party chooses a candidate for president and a candidate for vice president. In each state, each party also chooses a group, or slate, of electors. The electors promise to vote for their party’s candidates. When citizens vote for the candidates of one party, they are actually choosing that party’s electors for their state. “In most states,...